Susan's Place Transgender Resources

    The one i'm going to now is moving to Ohio with her husband and is setting up an office there but that's way to far for me to travel.

    Does anyone know of a good gender therapist in the Pittsburgh area of PA? I've looked around and all i could find was a clinic called Persad center that's supposed to work with transgender people but i've heard mixed things about them from others at my support group.

    If anyone has been to Persad or any other gender therapist in the Pittsburgh area please let me know, thanks!

 
    xo

Hi, I went to Persad for GID related talk therapy a couple years back. Feel free to pm me. The long and short of it was I had a specific agenda in doing therapy at that time (in hindsight not the best way to get anything out of therapy) and other than helping me understand GID better than I did at the outset, it didn't do much for me. But I don't see that as  fault of the therapy I received--it had lots more to do with the unrealistic agenda I had in mind.

I'd be interested to know what support group you attend as I've been thinking I either need to go back to Persad or start attending a support group, or both. Have you considered doing therapy via skype or phone? Been casually  looking into that myself.

Good luck in your search. If you find someone you like, maybe you could post the info.

  Thanks for responding! About Persad do they have therapist that specialize in gender issues?

  I tried calling them, left a message and still no response.  :(

They do have therapists that deal with gender issues. As far as specialization, I remember reading that one of the founding therapists (James Huggins) of Persad specialized in gender issues and working with transsexual folks. I don't know if he is still seeing patients, but at least when I was researching where to go several years ago, they were pretty much the only game in town. When I do a google search for "GID Therapy +n Pittsburgh" his name and two other therapists at Persad come up now: Michelle Keffer and Karen Lewis. Changing the search string somewhat yielded these other folks here (and curiously, didn't have the Persad Center at all): http://www.helppro.com/HP/therapist-finder/therapy-specialty/PA/Pittsburgh/50/Gender_Identity.aspx (http://www.helppro.com/HP/therapist-finder/therapy-specialty/PA/Pittsburgh/50/Gender_Identity.aspx)  However, looking at their profiles they don't look like they specialize in GID.

My recollection from when I started at Persad, is you'l get a response from the front office something like 'all our therapists are trained to help you with gender issues,' which to some extent is probably true. If I decide to go back there, I will probably ask to get an appointment with someone that does specialize in GID, even if they are resistant to the idea. After all, it's my problem, my health and I get to decide who I am comfortable seeing for therapy. I was told by my therapist back then that they work closely with several MD's that have lots of experience prescribing hormones if that ended up being the route I needed to take. I never explored that avenue at the time as back then I didn't want to even consider transition.

I did some more searching online, and it really looks like Persad is your best bet at finding someone who even comes close to specializing in GID. Good luck.

In my opinion, I can't recommend Persad in Pittsburgh. I just spent months in treatment for nothing. My therapist couldn't remember from week to week what I had told her. There were acronyms in my records that the intake therapist wrote for psychiatric conditions that had been in my records for months and my therapist didn't know what they meant when I asked her about them. My therapist was too lazy to read anything I gave her, even brief things. I was routinely challenged in therapy sessions to "prove" that I was really a transgender woman. Other patients keep making the excuse that everybody is so overworked there that it justifies what is going on. Oh, and a number of trans patients, some with very serious mental health conditions were left for four months without a therapist after theirs went out on sick leave, only to never return. The patients weren't even told what was going on. You might also want to ask who is actually a member of WPATH at Persad? I left treatment and quit attending Persad after my therapist told me she thought my gender problem was caused by childhood sexual abuse, and that I wasn't really trans. Yes, she really said after supposedly talking to the supervising psychiatrist. The week before she told me I was transgender and that she would have approved me for hormones (I've already been on hormones for a year by another therapist prior to moving to Pittsburgh).

At one point during my treatment at Persad my therapist proclaimed that I was too young to be retired on disability (I've been on disability for nearly 10 years) and stated I should return to work and driving a car. I don't drive a car due to a medically documented neurological problem. The therapist didn't believe me about the neurological problem that causes seizures and demanded to have my medical records. So I signed a release. The records arrived and proved I was telling the truth and that the therapist was a misguided idiot that was playing God with my life and financial livelihood.

Here's what well-known trans psychologist Anne Vitale had to say about being transgender because of past sexual abuse:

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"Dear XXX"

"Rather than step on anyone's toes, I will restrict my comments to generalities. To the best of my knowledge there has never been a study that showed that gender dysphoria was the result of parental maladjusted raising or  childhood trauma of any kind. On the contrary there are many studies that show gender dysphoria to be the result of hormonal disruptions at critical times in utereo. I don't have time to get into that here but that data is available in my book "The Gendered Self" or by googling names such as J-N Zhou, L. Gooren, D. F. Swaab and F. M. Kruijver."

"The other, more important point is that no matter what causes gender dysphoria, there is only one known treatment (HRT and optional surgery) and according to your statement that is already being employed."

"It is not uncommon for people with gender dysphoria to exhibit a spectrum of comorbidities. The important issue here is for the therapist treating the GD to separate out the talk treatable issues from the physically treatable GD."

"I hope this helps."

"Anne Vitale PhD"

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Anne Vitale PhD
Calif License #PSY15764
610 D Street
San Rafael CA 94901
http://www.avitale.com
Author: The Gendered Self: Further commentary on the transsexual phenomenon
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If this is your idea of therapy in an old, cold rickety building, then have it!